Much of the good stuff is heralded by major annual film festivals, among them Telluride (already come and gone), Toronto (Sept. 4-14) and New York (Sept. 26-Oct. 12). A small handful of titles first screened this May at Cannes, notably Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher," are making their way to theaters before Thanksgiving. And it wouldn't be another movie season without the latest...

Pop culture right now likes to portray techie innovators as entrepreneurs. Think Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network" or the amiable malcontents of the HBO comedy series "Silicon Valley." All their efforts — all that substantial brain power — is geared...

For one of the final scenes of the first season of the new HBO comedy series "Silicon Valley," creator Mike Judge and his production designers re-created TechCrunch Disrupt, the intense annual San Francisco conference where computer engineers,...

Let us consider for a moment the Hollywood performance that never gets nominated for awards but can be just as indelible as any Oscar-winning role. I'm referring to the celebrity interview that goes viral.
Typically interviews that are done during a...

A sly one, "Side Effects" is a movie in which the main character's pharmacological state of mind is never entirely certain.
In such a role it's critical to have someone who can keep an audience guessing as to the state of that mind, moment to moment. How...

Christian Bale is set to play Steve Jobs in Sony's upcoming biopic about the late Apple co-founder, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has confirmed — and he didn't even need to audition to land the part.
"We needed the best actor on the board in a certain age...

Christian Bale is eyeing — or i-ing, if you prefer — the role of Apple founder Steve Jobs.
The 40-year-old English actor is in talks to play the charismatic tech genius who gave the world the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone in Sony's upcoming biopic, The...

There was one line Ben Affleck didn't want to deliver in the new movie "Gone Girl," according to director David Fincher:
"I'm so sick and tired of being picked apart by women."
In the scene a woman is, in fact, filleting Affleck's character, weary...

"Gone Girl," David Fincher's thriller based on the bestselling Gillian Flynn novel, will open this year's New York Film Festival on Sept. 26, according to a Variety report.
The film stars Rosamund Pike as a woman who mysteriously vanishes, leaving her...

Over a 20-year career making stylized, often genre-tinged films, Danny Boyle has been known to look at a well-worn area in new and dynamic ways.
With a potential Steve Jobs movie, he could be taking on a worthy subject.
The British auteur is in talks to...

Loyola High School in Los Angeles will showcase the work of young filmmakers from across the country via a student-run film festival, the first such event in the school's 149-year history, to be held May 17.
Open to all U.S. high-school students, the...

SAN FRANCISCO — Samsung Electronics Co. struck social media gold when Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres used one of its smartphones to take what has now become the world's most famous selfie.
DeGeneres never mentioned Samsung, a major Academy Awards sponsor,...

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and English musician Atticus Ross will put their knack for chilly, moody soundscapes to use once again in director David Fincher's upcoming thriller "Gone Girl," an adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel about a man...

After the coffee. Before seeing how "Bonnie and Clyde" did.
The Skinny: I'm liking "Homeland" again. If I forgot how the show got to where it's got in terms of plots, and just enjoy it for what it is, I roll my eyes a lot less. Anyway, after I endured...

For all of those teenage boys dying to see Judi Dench playing an elderly Irish woman: Now you don't have to bring your parents to get into "Philomena."
In a victory against the Motion Picture Assn. of America that could be as much publicity win as...

In its own Hollywood way, "The Fifth Estate" is quite an ambitious film. It wants to create a viable portrait of Julian Assange, the wildly controversial founder of WikiLeaks, dramatize the significant but complex questions his work raises and surround...

NEW YORK — For years, the New York Film Festival was a quaint afterthought on the fall festival circuit, good for locals to catch up on indie titles but devoid of much Hollywood fizz.
Not anymore.
The Lincoln Center event has become an increasingly...